A suicide and two tournaments. Same result

By Padraig Parkinson (09/07/2006)

I got another great Vegas cab driver. A real beauty. This guy told me that he picked up a girl in his cab one night, and she told him to just drive around as she was planning on killing herself. She handed him a bundle of money wrapped up in a rubber band and told him to keep it as she wouldn't need where she was going. I consider this a very loose play on her part as we can't really be sure carry forwards aren't allowed. He drove her around for over an hour and listened as she told him about the row she just had with her boyfriend, which explained the state she was in. He managed to persuade her to have something to eat as suicides and stuff like that should not be attempted on an empty stomach. Over dinner she cheered up considerably, even smiled a little, and finally decided to go home and sort things out with her boyfriend. When he got her home the boyfriend was waiting anxiously for her and appeared thrilled to see her. I told him that must have made him feel pretty good. He agreed that it did, but not good enough to stop him driving off with her $ 2200! Tough town. It's worth remembering that if you try to make making money playing poker here.

I played the $ 1500 Pot Limit Holdem tournament. It was very player friendly. Only ten to a table. The general consensus among the pros is that giving players double chips, i.e. 3000 instead of 1500 in this case, as they do at most progressive venues would be a lot more fair, especially when bracelets are up for grabs. I tend to agree with them but have pointed out to some of the moaners that perhaps Harrah's just don't have enough chips to go around. I like to be fair. I did much better in the pot-limit, I got to level 2. I got plenty of practice at set flopping as I got dealt a whole bunch of small and medium pocket pairs, but it looks like I'm no good at it for the moment. At the dizzy heights of level 2 I changed tactics and raced my pair against the over cards. One of us finished up with a set, but it wasn't me!

I had the next day off as I'm either too dumb or too bright to feel good about entering a Limit Holdem tournament. I took the opportunity to move from downtown to the Gold Coast. Close enough to the poker room. Far enough from the bad beat stories. A lot of Irish guys stayed here last year, so I decided to play safe and pretend to be an American. I shouted about three times as loud as necessary at the girl in reception and stated the obvious once or twice. I think it worked.

I was hanging about outside the impressive Full Tilt hospitality suite when a bell boy emerged pushing an empty trolley. My companion was impressed that Full Tilt even had their own bell boy. I told him he was need to wheel the egos in and out. It's hard to keep a good man down.

I did however enter new territory by level 3, where the binds were 50-100. A small stack limped in first position and Minh Ly raised. I had 88. I wouldn't normally be too crazy in this spot, especially with a limper, but the limper had been limping while short-stacked and passing when raised already. I knew I wasn't the only one aware of this, so I treated the raise with less respect than I normally would, and moved all-in for about 1700, thinking there was a good chance I'd win the pot there and then. There wasn't. The raiser called me with 99. The first card over was an 8! Well, it wasn't actually. It was a jack! Nothing else helped and I was walking again. Three events. $ 5500. Not the start I was looking for, but if you don't get off to a decent start in these events, you end up on a one-hand-for-the-lot strategy, which isn't ideal but you've got to play the game as it unfolds.

Rory : Did you play today ? Gary : No way! It's like trying to find a needle an a hay stack. Rory : So, are you going to try the $ 500 tournament at 5 o'clock then ? Gary : Nope. It's a complete crapshoot ! Rory : Maybe the $ 1000 in the Bellagio would suit you better... Slow clock, lots of chips. Gary : That's like a championship event, it goes on and on for ever... Rory : Oh, OK.

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